Essential Reading

There are close to 200 posts on this blog, which can make it hard to find what you’re looking for. I’ve put together a loosely categorized list of essential topics on this page as a starting point for new readers. If you’re looking for something autism-related that you don’t see here, let me know in the comments. If I haven’t written about a topic, I probably know of someone who has.

Adult Resources

Most of the posts here are geared toward autistic adults/adults with Asperger’s syndrome, but a few in particular deal with adult topics like relationships, parenting and aging:

Communication

Communication impairments are a big part of autism. I’ve talked about this extensively, but these three posts are a good starting place for someone how wants to understand what communication impairments can look like in autistic people of all ages: Echolalia and Why Talking is Hard and (Not) A Little Slow

Thank you! 🙂 I realized that I was spending a lot of time referring people to the same few articles and constantly having to look them up. Now I can find them more quickly and hopefully this will be a good starting place for others who want to get up to speed quickly or just read about a certain topic.

Hi, I didn’t know where I should comment. I’m 50 years old and have been “exploring” the possibility of my being on the upper end of the spectrum. Although I prefer the Aspergirl thing. I went to a neuro dr. Very uncomfortable situation and the questions seemed way to vague. One answer questions don’t cover what we experience. I have been mulling the situation over in my head every since, and am sure i will continue until i get the results. My deal is I confessed that I smoke cannabis. He never asked how it helps me. That without it i get too excited and act like a fool. I must admit that I became guarded pretty early into the process and am therefore not at all sure what the outcome will be. The minute I mentioned my self medication I felt his judgement sweep over me. Pretty much I started shutting down at that point became wicked frustrated and lost all focus. I feel so very lost and lonely. Heather

I downloaded your book (nerdy, shy and socially inappropriate) this morning and read it all day. I’ve just finished.
I did stop to feed my kids their dinner. I’m a 40 y.o female and I was told on Friday that I have Aspergers. I was expecting it. Your book was brilliant – just what I needed. Especially useful were the parts, to me, on sensory stimulation – there’s a name for it!!! Stiming – I’ve done it my whole life. Plus there’s a reason I always dim the lights! There’s a reason I hate noise! There’s a reason behind everything. It explains my childhood, my marriage, my parenting style, why I can’t decide what to cook for dinner if I haven’t thought about it first thing in the morning.
Thankyou.

Hi.
As a self identifying border case Ive been doing a lot of reading recently. Ive commented on another page and describe myself as at least an aspie sympathiser, but it is very hard to tell whether I was born this way or made
I really like your site and find the topics personally interesting. Would you consider doing a questionnaire / survey on the topics of stimming, eye contact, perfectionism? It would be very helpful to me to see the various responses for personal reasons given for these traits. eg. I read that with an aspie eye contact is avoided, but elsewhere I read that it is actually preferred initially, but it makes NT people uncomfortable becayse it is ‘too intense’. Is the avoidance a learned response to aggressive reactions of NTs? And how frustrating do other possible aspies find it when politely avoiding eye contact also elicits an aggressive response due to its interpretation as a guilty conscience or lack of respect? Therefore do we really have no ability to understand people, or do we just find them to be inconsistent in their social rules and so we make up our own or end up preferring our own company. Im sure I think 80% of aspie traits are methods to deal with social stress. Do we start out as introverts, or do we become one later? Can you become an aspie due to changes in brain structure after stress or burnout? Are clear aspie cases just another valid default brain configuration that happens to not work so well in current society but previously worked well to make excellent businessmen and engineers back in the day when we were labelled merely as ‘gifted’ and ‘late bloomers’ and ‘literal minded’.

Lots of questions, no need to answer them all, but I hope my brain dump adds to the duscussion and mutual understanding of us more diverse sorts. Thanks again for taking the time to blog your musings. I always appreciate reading the insipring and humbling thoughts of those with a clearer mind than mine.

I just found out I might be Autistic. I am a 55 year-old male Chartered Engineer and my employer more or less required me to get a referral. I feel quite devastated to be honest but your website is easily the best I have come across and it is a tremendous help putting the confused jigsaw of my life into some sort of perspective.

Now comes the NHS waiting game whereby I have to be officially sanctioned Asperger and yet juxtaposed against that there is the thought that even my nearest and dearest have thought I was ‘odd’ for years. Seems a bit like Kafka.

Without wishing to effervesce unduly, thank you for putting this site together. It is great.

What People Are Reading

Yesterday I ventured way way way outside my comfort zone to record an interview on Autism Spectrum Radio. The host, Rob Haupt, asked some great questions and was easy to talk to. You can listen to our conversation here. Rob does a short intro and then the rest of show (about 35 minutes) is our conversation.

My friends Ibby Grace And Amy Sequenzia are editing an anthology titled “Typed Words, Loud Voices”, a collection of works by people who type to talk always or sometimes. They’re looking for essays, poems, stories or whatever form of expression you’d like to share your message in.

As some of you noticed yesterday, I’ve updated the blog theme to add a little color. Maybe down the road I’ll experiment with some of the new features (like this one that allows short “aside” posts). It’ll take some getting used to, I know.

And yes the remodeling is an indication of just how bored I am with all the not writing I’m doing.

Triathlon training is chugging along nicely – 3 weeks to go and I feel great, if a bit worn out. The garden is producing lots of cucumbers and tomatoes, a few eggplants and peppers. And for some reason I’m the only person on earth who can’t grown squash? With the exception of one green squash a couple of weeks ago, all I’m getting are tiny little squash that turn yellow and wither.

Besides a renewed obsession with The Sims, that’s about all that’s new around these parts.